(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a surface-emitting semiconductor laser, a method for producing the surface-emitting semiconductor laser, a surface-emitting semiconductor laser device, an optical transmission device, and an information processing device.
(ii) Related Art
Surface-emitting semiconductor lasers are capable of emitting a laser beam in a direction perpendicular to the substrate and readily formed in an array by two-dimensional integration. Therefore, surface-emitting semiconductor lasers have been used as, for example, a light source for electronic equipment, such as a light source used for writing a latent image on a photoreceptor which is built in a printer, a light source for optical communications, or a light source for optical mice.
High-performance printers that offer high-speed, high-image-quality printing require single-mode (i.e., fundamental transverse mode) surface-emitting semiconductor lasers. In order to further improve image quality performance, development of surface-emitting semiconductor lasers having long service lives which have a large single-mode light output and achieve stable polarization are anticipated hereafter. Importance is also placed on controlling the angle of divergence of a laser beam in connection with the optical system constituting a printer.